I did not expect to enjoy family medicine. My father and grandfather were both family doctors, yet when I started studying medicine myself, I was quick to discover a polite disrespect for primary care. “Why would you go into family medicine?” was a common refrain. This, despite a shortage of primary care doctors that is only expected to worsen.

The reasons have been rehearsed many times: the burden of documentation, the pressure to shorten patient encounters, the focus on metrics, the distractions of integrating third-party payers. The primary care doctors I met during medical school seemed the most jaded and world-weary. By the time I graduated, I was still proud of my family legacy but had written off a future in primary care.

The direct primary care model aims to put relationships over profit.